What is web page metadata?
Last updated July 2020
Every webpage should have a unique title and meta description. Contrary to popular myth, these two pieces of information have little direct effect on your search rankings but are crucial for encouraging someone seeing your website listed on Google to click and visit your page.
This is what a page title and meta description typically look like in Google:
The title is purple in this instance (it's been clicked on before), and the small bit of text below it is the meta description.
Why Is This Important?
When someone searches on Google (or any other search engine), they are presented with a list of possible sites to visit. In terms of getting traffic to your site, this is only half the story.
The other half is persuading someone to click your link instead of those above or below it. This is where the page metadata comes in.
Your page metadata – the title and description – is what the person searching will read about your business and use to decide whether to click your link or not.
Therefore, you need your page titles and descriptions to be descriptive, engaging, informative, and ultimately interesting enough to the user to make them want to visit your page, not someone else's.
I can assist you with your page metadata, but no one knows what will interest your clients better than you. So, when I ask you for your page metadata, please give it some thought, as it can be the difference between a lot of website traffic and none.
Page metadata can be updated on an ongoing basis, but remember... It can take Google a while to pick up changes, and it doesn't favour things that continuously change, so don't get carried away with updates.
Page titles need to be around 60 characters, with descriptions around 150 characters.
And remember to incorporate your key search words and terms.